Inkwell: Authors and Artists

Topic 482: 30th Anniversary stories: What lengths did you go to in order to meet a fellow WELL member?

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It's all done with mirrors...(kafclown)Tue 31 Mar 15 05:26

I joined in January 1991. I was living in Blue Lake, CA, going to clown
school. I had been a subscriber to the Whole Earth Review, and I was
looking for something to do. I bought a modem, hooked it up, and I was
hooked.
I spoke with <gail> on the phone a few times, and I set up a private
conference for Bay Area ensemble theatres on behalf of Dell'arte (which
didn't go anywhere at all)
I think the first time I met people it was <Reva> and a few other people.
I was with my brother Daniel (who was 14 or so at the time. I had lost my
passport, and I had asked in the experts topic-- where did I leave my
passport? and Reva "found" it for me online. So I bought her brunch and
met a bunch of people. Afterwards, my brother was a little
surprised/weirded out by the fact that I'd never met any of these (mostly
older than me) people, but was having a good time with them.
I got an apartment in San Francisco via the WELL in 1991 also-- ramon
sender was looking for somebody to housesit his recently deceased mother
in law's house in Pacific Heights, and I was looking for a place to live
while I performed with George Coates Performance Works. Worked out
perfectly, timing wise, and my first time living in San Francisco, living
in Pacific Heights-- well, it didnt suck!

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a plaid pajama ninja(cynsa)Tue 31 Mar 15 10:47

<kafclown>, we are almost anniversary-mates, as I joined in November
of 1991.
Soon afterward, my beloved Honda Aero50 scooter was stolen. I posted
in g ride about in the Stolen Bike Watch topic, and <vision> replied
that he worked at Golden Gate Cycles and would keep an eye out for a
red Aero50 with Munch's The Scream painted on the side.
Well, when the police returned it to me in sorry condition, torn to
pieces, I pushed it from the towing lot all the way up Van Ness to
GG Cycles and this tall, lanky guy in a Hein Gericke motorcycle
jacket stopped me on my sad trek and said, "Hey! You must be Cynsa."
An awesome friendship was born.
Then he and <flash> came over to my place with a moto rag and picked
out my first motorcycle, and <dlee> drove me to Sacramento in his
pick-up truck to purchase it. g ride for buds to the max and come
to the WELL for networking beyond belief.

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David Gans(tnf)Tue 31 Mar 15 11:07

I have done various audio favors for <cynsa> and her wonderful bands, Mary
Schmary and Lemon Juju!
The WELL is so deeply intertwingled (thanks Ted Nelson for that word) with my
life story that I really can't imagine who I'd be if I hadn't come here
nearly 30 years back.

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jelly fish challenged(reet)Tue 31 Mar 15 11:18

Heck, your getting <jrc> here wound up getting me here, as I only
knew about it after reading a Jon Carroll column or two about this
literate and strange online place.

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Donna Odierna(strega)Tue 31 Mar 15 11:20

...and we know how that turned out!

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David Julian Gray(djg)Tue 31 Mar 15 11:46

<scribbled by djg Tue 31 Mar 15 11:47>

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David Julian Gray(djg)Tue 31 Mar 15 11:49

I was the 16th person on the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link ... I
walked up to Jim Stockford (<jim>) at Whole Earth Review booth at
the West Coast Computer Fair and complained the coverage of music
software wasn't sufficiently deep or informed. He signed me up,
gave me a modem and charged me with making it better. Shortly after
I became his co-host of the nascent music conference.
Back then - I'd read every post in every conference every day ...one
could do that in April 1985 - by August 1985 one couldn't. Jim
and I would meet sometimes - usually at a bar across the street from
the Mitchell Bros. Theater - don't remember much more - nice little
place.
In those early days I'd see <rabar> and other folk I've shamefully
forgetten frequently at electronic music concerts - I went from
gadfly in that scene to equipment purveyor when <rebop> gave me a
job at Leos audio - where I met <tnf> - and the erstwhile <heynow>
(is Lori still around under a different name?) My band played at the
10th Anniversary party ... (I also played <tnf>'s wedding to
<reet>)
The WELL was definitely the fulcrum of my transition from a dreamer
musician/tech gadfly to a professional audio/broadcast technologist
- it happened just by listening, watching and pontificating on the
WELL ... it did just seem to happen, and it happened here ...

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David Julian Gray(djg)Tue 31 Mar 15 11:54

... Ok, my bad for not looking, <heynow> still here - HI Lori! ...
When I moved to DC, 18 years ago we had a WELL gathering at a nice
pub with a gazillion brews on tap in near GWU ... we should do
another... it's been 18 years!
A bunch of us East Coasters also met around 5-6 years ago for dinner
in Wilmington, DC before a CPR (one of <croz>' bands) show at the
Wilmington Opera House - great gig - <aud> pulled that together and
<croz> said hi afterward ...

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Celia Chapman(lark)Tue 31 Mar 15 12:21

I have met so many Well pern over the years! At first I was shy
about it but now if I'm on vacation somewhere and there is a Well
person I will try to meet up with them. It does feel like family.
My very first Well event did not get off to a promising start. It
was a local thing here in L.A., and the very first person I saw when
I walked in was <bubbles> who I already knew from the local science
fiction club, and for some reason we did not talk. But I
perservered.
Recent meetings include drinks in London with <badri>, a tour of
Cambridge and drinks with <genou>, dinner in Maui with <zzzcat> and
a radio station tour on Kona with <dmsml>.
I've been to a few official Well events in San Francisco and L.A.
and don't even remember everybody I met, but I know I met <tpy> and
<doxy> and <ruz> and <fsqured> and <thanne> and <vsclyne> and
<dshif> and <rtswimm> and <misha>. I had dinner in Boston once with
<betsys> and <kd>, went to Oklahoma City to meet <mcarp> before he
passed away, have traveled with <kayo> and <brady>, had Mexican food
in Phoenix with <bratwood>, went to a slumber party in Marin, used
to meet up with <monica> for coffee in New York, and hang out
locally with <pellmell>.

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a plaid pajama ninja(cynsa)Tue 31 Mar 15 13:23

oh, don't get me started on the Schmary/JuJu connection, <tnf>. I
think one of the first times I met you I brought you a tape you'd
graciously volunteered to master. I rode my bicycle to BART and then
straight up a hill to your house. you'd given me directions but I
think you'd neglected to mention you lived at the top of such a
steep hill. oy!

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David Gans(tnf)Tue 31 Mar 15 18:59

Heh!

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Waiting for Baudot(chuck)Tue 31 Mar 15 22:46

In 2003 I went to Angelina, on Rue de Rivoli, (Metro: Tuileries) to
have hot chocolate with two Well members.
A few years later I met up with another Well member and we had beers
at a sidewalk cafe in the 5eme.

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John Payne(satyr)Wed 1 Apr 15 00:20

This is my sixth login, the one I've finally stuck with (since 1998)
after bouncing around from initials to a contraction of my name, to
an expression ("wuwei") meant to project something akin to my voice
as a writer, in my most lucid moments, to another expression
("snowmelt") that was actually both a political statement and a
suggestion as to how to deal with the snow jobs (by applying heat),
then one more contraction of my name before settling on "satyr".
I'd been aware of The W.E.L.L. almost from the beginning, as a
subscriber to the Whole Earth Software Review, shortly before it
merged with CoEQ to become the Whole Earth Review. But the W.E.L.L.
was happening in the Bay Area, and I lived in Colorado, so it was
another two or three years (1987 or 88) before I got around to
joining, and then I was primarily a lurker (downloading entire
topics to read offline), to keep the connect-time charges under
control, until those connect-time charges went away for connections
via the Internet.
The first WELLpern I met face-to-face was David Hughes <dave>, of
Old Colorado City fame, and the second was <jnfr>. Then, in 1994
a few of us plotted the formation of a regional conference for
the rocky mountain west, and, rather suddenly, we became a
community living close enough together to actually get together
fairly frequently. Over the years, the frequency of those gaterings
has subsided, but the conference is still active, and we did gather
to celebrate its twentieth anniversary last year.
I was slow to go 'over the wall' to join other social networks, as
they began to emerge, but finally did, and now also have accounts
on Twitter, Facebook, Google, MeetUp, Scoop.it, and others where
I'm less active. While I understand why The WELL never became a
success on the scale of Twitter or Facebook, I still mourn that
turn of events and believe the world would now be a better place
if it had, since what it offers, at least in public conferences,
is an informal, occasionally fiery version of peer review, since
common interest rather than friendship determines who sees what
you've written.
On the other hand, 'success' on that scale would have turned the
Well into a very different, probably less friendly place, so
perhaps it's better that didn't happen.
Oh, right, Happy 30th Birthday to all of us!

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Gary Gach(ggg)Wed 1 Apr 15 07:41

To date me, when I'd attended my first Well party, the support team
was sharing war stories from during the year. One subscriber had
called up to ask why there was coffee holder in her computer. He
thought about it, and realized what she meant, and said, "That's for
loading CD's."
Here's a toast to a happy anniversary of Well's first post!

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Gail (in lieu of disclaimer see gailwilliams.com)(gail)Wed 1 Apr 15 09:43

<hidden>

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Celia Chapman(lark)Wed 1 Apr 15 12:07

Yay happy anniversary!

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Fawn Fitter(fsquared)Wed 1 Apr 15 14:54

I completely forgot about the time <mim> stayed at my place!
The first time I met <brady> in person, she was on her way to Maine
and had a daylong stopover in Boston, where I was living at the
time. I had other plans but we met up and I handed her my keys so
she could go to my place and take a shower. She thought she was
alone. Imagine her shock when she walked out of the bathroom in only
a towel and encountered my flatmate. (He was pretty shocked, too.)

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99 Percent Pseud Free!(mim)Wed 1 Apr 15 15:12

the takeaway here is fawn will give her apt. keys to any well person who
asks, no questions asked. Maybe this should be a new marketing message!

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David Gans(tnf)Wed 1 Apr 15 15:19

!!!

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Jennifer Powell(jnfr)Wed 1 Apr 15 15:58

As <satyr> mentioned, the <rockies.> conference began in 1994. I
joined the Well itself in '93, calling long distance from Colorado
(and paying the Well by the hour too), and I was frustrated with how
California- and especially Bay-Area-centric it was. So <rockies.>
starting up made a huge difference to me, and within my Well home,
it's been my own corner pub.
We had a get-together, I think in a park in the mountains above
Boulder. I had not known any or most of the people in the conference
then as I lived in the foothills and out of the way. So I was a
little nervous as I drove myself to this mountain park to meet a
bunch of strangers. Meeting people online definitely wasn't a thing
back then.
I walked up from the parking lot under a gorgeous Colorado blue sky,
and the party was not in view yet as they were further around the
hill. But as I got closer I realized I could hear everyone's voices,
talking and talking and talking intently. And I grinned because I
knew I'd found the Well group.

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David Gans(tnf)Wed 1 Apr 15 17:21

Lovely story!
I met <jnfr> in Gillette, Wyoming, when a group of us descended on the home
of <heyjude> and her family. We visited the Bighorn Mountains and attended
an international fireworks convention (and show!!!), and did some WELL
community-building.

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Jennifer Powell(jnfr)Wed 1 Apr 15 17:41

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those Andropovian bongs(rik)Wed 1 Apr 15 18:22

I get my moden amd signed on back in 1990, and wasn't on more than a
couple of months when I got a email from this guy, <matisse>, asking if
I'd be up for a trip through the Exploratorium's Tactile Dome. Naked.
He'd found out that you could rent it for afterhours, and they would let
you do such things. I showed up not knowing a soul f2f, disrobed, and
went crawling through the pitch-black dome, chatting with people, bumping
into them, and I even had someone land on me while dropping into the room
full of dried beans.
Interesting social interactions when you're hanging out in the dark with a
bunch of naked strangers. Disembodied voices, but with that frisson of
knowing that they're as naked as you. And I remember thinking, "These are
interesting people."

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jelly fish challenged(reet)Wed 1 Apr 15 20:14

I was in that pile o' beans, too!
As for getting on the Well in the first place, I blame <sbb> and <jrc> and
<thansen>. Because I was a fan of the Whole Earth Catalogue , and
because <jrc> mentioned the Well in his column, and because my sqweetheart
<thansen> said, hey, I joined the Well, and I bet you'd like it, you can
check it it out if you want - well, I did check it out, and friends gave me
their old computer so I could keep checking it out (at 300 baud, oh, thank
you jimrutt, for Sweeper) and one thing led to 30 years later.